Chinese Op-Ed: ‘Pacific Rim degrades Chinese as monster eaters’

Pacific Rim has the rare distinction of grossing more in China than in the US, earning more than $106 million in just three weeks there, while having grossed a shade less than that here, despite higher ticket prices and a much earlier opening. Who knew Asians loved monster movies so much?

Well, not all of them. A recent op-ed, written by a Chinese military officer, urges Chinese to erect a firewall between themselves and Hollywood influence. Turns out that while all Chinese may look the same, they certainly don’t think the same. …What? What’s wrong with that sentence? My grandad said it was a fine lede.

In an bylined op-ed carried by the PLA Daily on Friday, Zhang Jieli, a PLA officer said Hollywood movies “have always served as a propaganda machine to convey American values and their strategies in the world.”

In the movie, the U.S. again behaves as the savior of mankind and the world police, fighting the Kaijus, monsters which have risen from the depths of the Pacific Ocean to attack human cities, said Zhang.

“The decisive battle against the monsters was deliberately set in South China Sea adjacent to Hong Kong,” Zhang said. “The intention was to demonstrate the U.S. commitment to maintaining stability in the Asia-Pacific area and saving the mankind.”

While the American characters study the monsters and create machines to battle them, the Chinese are depicted as harvesting their bodies for food and trinkets.

In addition to tremendous box office earnings from the Chinese market each year, American blockbusters implant western values in young Chinese minds to change their way of thinking, he noted.

“Soldiers should sharpen their eyes and enforce a ‘firewall’ to avoid ideological erosion when watching American movies,” Zhang warned. “More importantly, they should strengthen their combat capability to safeguard national security and interests.” [via TheWrap]

So… Hollywood values are harmful to the military-industrial complex, basically? I wouldn’t be so down on western influence there, guy, American conservatives have been saying that for years. Are we really so different?

And if this is the craziest op-ed you can find in a country with three times as many people as the US, I welcome our new Chinese overlords. You can find someone saying something crazier than this every hour on cable news. Also, what’s wrong with being a “monster eater?” Sounds pretty badass to me.

So a Mexican director makes a movie that’s an homage to Japanese cinema and the four actors playing the heroes are British, British, British, and Japanese, and it’s the American military that decides to shut down the program that ends up saving the world …. his logic is flawless.

Yeah the director probably got the idea from the fact that some “traditional” Asian medicines are made from the body parts of rare animals, which increases the incentives for poachers and leads to extinction. Bear gall bladders, Rhino horns, etc. There have been some pretty messed up documentaries about it. Tough shit, stop killing endangered species for impotence cures. Just gonna have to live with it…oh wait…

America is only interested in saving the mankind so long as it only sticks its kaiju in the womankind. Or something. The temptation is run this through google translate until it reveals that “ancient Chinese secret” is code for “MSG is peepee”.

Am I the only one that wants to make this guy watch Big Trouble In Little China?